It is well-known to provide a motor vehicle rear seat with a head restraint attached to an upper edge of the seat to limit rearward head movement of an occupant during a collision thereby minimizing the risk of injury to a neck of the occupant. It is further known to slidingly attach such a head restraint so as to permit the height of the head restraint to be adjusted to suit the height of the occupant requiring its support. One problem of the increased use of head restraints on rear seats of motor vehicles is that even when the head restraint is fully lowered, it considerably reduces rear visibility if the seat is not being occupied. To overcome this problem it has been proposed to use an inverted ‘L’ shaped head restraint hereinafter referred to as a ‘shingle head restraint’ that has a leg that overlies a front upper portion of a backrest of the seat when the shingle head restraint is fully lowered and a body portion that rests upon an upper edge, of the backrest when the shingle head restraint is fully lowered. The body portion of the shingle head restraint is of relatively small height so as to reduce the loss of rear visibility when the shingle head restraint is not in use.
It is an advantage of such a shingle head restraint that the overlying leg reduces the probability of an occupant utilizing the seat while the head restraint is in a lowered unsafe position due to the uncomfortable position an occupant has to adopt if the head restraint is overlying the front surface of the backrest.
It is further known from, for example, DE 4015872 to provide a head restraint attached to a foldable armrest so as to provide, when the armrest is folded up, safe seating for three occupants in a side by side relationship and, when the armrest is folded down, safe seating for two occupants separated by the armrest.
A disadvantage of the armrest shown in DE 4015872 is that the length of the armrest is shorter than is desirable. This is because a conventional bun-shaped head restraint is used and so the top edge of the armrest when it is folded up must be located below the top edges of the adjoining backrests so as to provide a recess for the head restraint to stow in order to provide good rear visibility when the head restraint is not in use.